Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-10-30
THE DROUGHT.
A Great Deal of Distress In the Surround
ing Country.

ing Country.
There is still no prospect Of rain.
In this statement the miserable drizzle
of yesterday afternoon doesn't count.
The drought is beginning to excite
good deal of uneasiness in the minds Of the
agriculturalists, and good deal Of alarm
among the inhabitants Of the various cities
and towns down tie river.
The first of these classes want rain and
the second want coal. This practically
amounts TO the same thing; the gratifca-
ton of the one wish means the gratifca-
ton of both, for if the farmer gets the rain
the river townsman will get his coal, and
If the coal is obtained the rain must have
preceded its arrival
But seriously, the drought is becoming
rather alarming. There has not been
enough rain to make q change in the stage
OF water in the river for about two months,
and number Of interests have suffered
large losses in consequence. The farmers
have lost no end Of time hauling an indif-
ferent quality of water long dis
tances; they have also lost y
good deal of good timber by
fires, and ditto much fencing, and hay and
other produce; the city people hsve lost
their health through having TO drink the
stuff served up TO them by the munich
pality; the coal producers in the Pitts.
burg district have lost patience at the Alb
sence of a boating stage; the steamboatmen
have almost lost their craft through the
sun drying them out as they lay bleaching
on sand bars, and last, but not
least, the inhabitants OF the
down stream towns have lost
their tempers at the height to which the
price of fuel has scared Coal is now quoted
at from seventeen TO twenty cents per
bushel in the southern market, snd
there soon will be none at
even these figures Here We are nj the
threshold OF November. Some Of these fine
mornings we shall wake up and find ice
floating in the river. That would mean
suspension of navigation, even it, by any
wild freak OF Nature, ii should rain enough
10 give us a coal boat stage What would
the poor Cincinnatian do then? He would
probably have TO hustle around pretty
lively to keep warm, for one thing. il is
a state of affairs which is causing great
hardship below us, and more is bound TO
come before things get better. The suffer.
ing will he especially great among the
poor. Letters received here from Louis
vile and other cities and towns in that
part OF the country, say coal is already be-
yond the reach of many.
In the country everything IL psrched.
Vegetation is like so much tinder, and the
conditions for forest fires on very large
scale are excellent. The situation is very
much the same as in 1871, the year Of the
great Chicago fire, when forest fires ragged
oil about us, in common with great por.
ton of the Northwest. and the smell of
wood smoke was borne TO the nostrils on
every breeze. When rain does come, too,
it is going to take great deal Of il before
much relief il afforded. The dry earth
will absorb a tremendous amount of water,
and long-continued, soaking showers must
fall before there is any appreciable change
in the stage of the river or the danger from
forest fires is wholly past.